Limbaugh promoted town hall hours before disruptionby Jed Lewison
Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 07:46:05 PM PDT
<snip>
Hours after Rush Limbaugh boosted the prominence of Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor's health care town hall in Tampa, Florida, angry protesters drowned out discussion, their chants of "tyranny, tyranny" forcing Castor to cancel the meeting early, before having a chance to hear and address concerns from her constituents.
You can see video of the teabaggers drowning out discussion at the townhall starting about two minutes into this video clip.
In addition to the vocal disruptions, there were some reports of violence at the town hall. According to WTSP, the Tampa CBS affiliate:
Violence at Tampa health care forum
Tampa, Florida - Angry protesters and strong supporters are clashing inside and all around a health care reform town hall meeting in Downtown Tampa. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 6:00 at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County drew hundreds of people who quickly began to overwhelm staff and event organizers at the front entrance.
As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.
10 Connects photojournalist Kevin Carlson, currently inside the meeting reports at least one fist fight breaking out inside. Some other journalists remain outside.
Earlier in the day, Limbaugh had featured the townhall on his radio broadcast. According to Media Matters' summary of today's broadcast, Limbaugh read a report that "Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) scheduled a 'last minute' town hall event."
"This is what's happening," explained Rush, "Obama has mobilized union thugs to go out and also attend these town meetings to intimidate the genuine citizens out there who are upset about this." The implication here, we guess, is that "union thugs" aren't "genuine citizens." He added:
LIMBAUGH: Those are paid act -- paid activists are going to be showing up. And that's why -- so the Democrats are going to get brave now. They're going to have protection there. The mob's showing up. The real, genuine mob is showing up to defend these Democrats from the unruly Nazis that are showing up to protest the health care bill.
Seems that Rush Limbaugh was half-right: the mob did show up. Only thing is that the real mob is his mob, and he seems set on taking ownership of it.
<snip>
Link:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/6/762939/-Limbaugh-promoted-town-hall-hours-before-disruptionExactly when... does this qualify as falsely yelling "fire" in a crowded theater?
:shrug:
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